Archive for April, 2011

Although not officially announced, the new Need for Speed title, called The Run, is scheduled to hit store shelves this November (SHIFT Unleashed 2 was released maybe a month ago in comparison, but both have different development teams). Not much is known about the title beyond that (for now, anyway), but what we do have is what appears to be a leaked trailer.

I can’t say for certain what the game is about, but given what you can pick up from the trailer, you’re, essentially, running for your life, as the game hints at it taking place from San Francisco up to what looks like New York City, and as the slogan at the end suggests (The Race For Your Life).

It also appears to be more story-driven than the past few titles; probably more so than ever. Seems interesting to say the least. Stay tuned for more information as it releases.

Earlier today, Ubisoft released a new trailer for the new addition to the Driver franchise, entitled “Comeback”, which shows off some of the chases and a few clips of some of the in-game cutscenes. Although the premise is weird (basically, everything takes place within Tanner’s head), the game still has over-the-top, Hollywood-style chase scenes, a staple for the franchise. Personally, I can’t wait for this one.

Many of us are expecting compensation from Sony for having to deal with about 2 weeks of no online gaming, but what many don’t realize is that the entity that will be most affected by the outage is Sony itself.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, the PSN brings Sony a total revenue of $10 million a week, $3 million of which is profit. Given that the sales will likely be halted for about two weeks, that alone costs Sony $20 million in revenue.

Now, keep in mind, that’s sales figures. Given the circumstances of the outage, consumer confidence in online purchasing will likely drop, causing a further decrease in revenue after the PSN comes back up. This trend, if it is going to happen, will likely continue for a few months from now.

But now you have to take into consideration the cost to have a third party security firm come in and investigate the whole mess. Forbes inquired a security firm, the Ponemon Institute, for how much it would cost to do such an investigation. The quote they got was a total of $318 per record for a data breach involving a criminal act.

Assuming Sony is paying a security firm that charges similar fees, each individual account will be a different record, and at $318 a piece, and about 77 million accounts, this, alone, will, theoretically, cost Sony about as much as $24.5 billion. Unless their security firm has a “purchase in bulk” discount, but I doubt Costco has such a business.

As for compensation, which many are expecting, especially those who have subscription-based services, Hulu+ users have already been given one week’s credit (and if the outage lasts a little longer, they might give two week’s worth). Sony Online Entertainment (Free Realms and DC Universe Online) is also going to compensate for lost time, including special events and other compensation (like, possibly, extension of subscription, etc).

A lot of you are familiar with Telltale Games’ adventure games, and recently, they gave the Back to the Future franchise the TTG treatment. Back when that was announced, they also made mention of the Jurassic Park franchise getting it as well.

Although it is still slated for PC only, there’s still a chance it will hit consoles, and given the nearly 12 minute gameplay-only video above, signs point to an almost definite possibility. It’s scheduled for a Fall 2011 release.

And for humor’s sake, after the jump I have another video showcasing some of the stupidly funny deaths, some of which were shown in the video above.

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